Lost in the Mists
by Wilona Riva
Summary: "Danny! Don't go to sleep," Sam's voice was sharp in his ears, but to no avail. He couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. He slipped into the darkness.
1. Sleep

Lost in the Mists

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Part of "The White Dreamer" collection._

* * *

**Sleep**

* * *

"Danny! Don't go to sleep," Sam's voice was sharp in his ears, but to no avail. He couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. He slipped into the darkness.

"Danny!"

* * *

_"Danny!" the teacher shouted in his ear, causing him to bolt upright. "Good, now that you are with us," Miss Spectra said, frowning at him. "Maybe you can tell me the location of the Far Frozen and its significance in the history of our world, Mr. Phantom?"_

_Danny slumped down in his seat. "Uh, Ghost Zone's South Pole and Frostbite's people guard a map to any portal in existence?"_

_"Good, Mr. Phantom. Kindly stay awake in my class, please," Miss Spectra narrowed her eyes at him._

_The bell rang for lunch. Students gathered their things and flew out of the room._

_"Danny, would you stay for a moment?" Miss Spectra asked._

_"I guess," Danny said, knowing he was going to get a detention for sleeping in class again._

_"Has your mother taken you to a physician yet for your condition?" his teacher asked._

_"Yesterday," he mumbled, green eyes downcast._ _"Said it was something triggered by my insomnia." _

_"Basically, you are having those dreams again," Miss Spectra stated._

_"Yes, ma'am," he mumbled._

_"It's okay, Phantom, get to lunch. You don't have much time left and I'm sure Miss McLean is loitering outside the door waiting for you," the teacher said, with a hint of a smile._

_Ember stuck her head in the door. "Got that right, teach!"_

_"So you're not bi-polar or anything?" Ember asked, as they looked for a bench outside._

_"No," Danny replied, picking at his food._

_"What is this world like? Am I in it?" she grinned._

_"Yes, you are a ghost and when people chant your name, your hair catches fire," he said, spearing a sausage. The Lunch Lady believed in a healthy protein diet._

_"Danny, I __**am**__ a ghost and my ponytail __**is **__made of flames," she emphasized. "That's nothing new."_

_"You're a rock star who put me under a love spell, making me think I was in love with my best friend, and tried to take over the world," he replied._

_"Oh," she said. Then it dawned on her what he said. "Wait! I'm a rock star? That is so outrageous. Danny? Danny? Somebody get the teacher!"_

* * *

"Somebody get the teacher!" Danny groaned and opened his eyes and promptly shut his eyes.

"Uh, Ember, what happened?" he groaned.

"Thank God, you are alright, Danny," Sam's voice, lined with worry and relief, came from nearby.

"Where am I?" he mumbled, trying to sit up, only to be pushed back down by Sam.

"You blacked out and somebody's gone to get Lancer. You seriously need to get some rest, Danny. All the ghost fighting is getting to you."

"I know, Sam," he sighed and closed his eyes briefly. "This couldn't be a side effect of my ghost powers, you think?"

"Could be, dude," Tucker said, coming back with Lancer in tow. He was thankful that Lancer had been just out of earshot to not hear Danny's last comment.

"Wee Free Men!" Lancer exclaimed. "What is going on here?"

Sam and Danny jerked apart and blushed.

The teacher sighed.

* * *

_The teacher sighed. "Come on, Daniel," Miss Spectra said. "Wake-up!'_


	2. Lovely Dreams

Lost in the Mists

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

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**Lovely Dreams**

* * *

_The teacher sighed. "Come on, Daniel," Miss Spectra said. "Wake-up!"_

_"It's no use," the gym teacher, Skulker, said as he came to see what was wrong. "Something is wrong with the whelp. He did this in my class as well."_

_"I know it's not me; I only siphon off the extra energy when it threatens to spill over," Spectra said. "I don't like this. He needs to see a specialist."_

_Ember looked up from the floor where she was cradling Danny's head. "It's like he's really only here half of the time."_

_Both teachers were startled. Could it have been the accident?_

* * *

"Could it have been the accident?" Sam whispered to Tucker. "We don't know if there were other side effects."

"Possibility," Tucker replied, as Mrs. Fenton finished filling out the forms while Mr. Fenton talked with the doctor.

"Where is he?" Danny's sister cried, running into the nurse's office.

* * *

_"Where is he?" Danny's sister cried, running into the nurse's office. Skulker had taken charge of the young ghost. _

_"Doctor Bert Rand is with him at the moment, Miss Phantom," Skulker told her. "You should call your mother."_

_"I wish my mother was here," Danielle said._

_A swirl of pink mist coalesced in the center of the room. A beautiful dark-green skinned woman with ruby eyes and lustrous long dark hair gasped and flew to her son's side. "Daniel, Daniel, I told you to stay home from school today, you silly boy."_

* * *

"Daniel, Daniel, I told you to stay home from school today, you silly boy."

"He's fine, Jazz," Sam told her, pulling her to the side. Tucker was doing his "modelling agency" chant again in the corner, while secretly peeking at his friend's prone form lying so still on the bed. "What did he tell you this morning?"

"He asked where his sister was," Jazz answered thinking back to that morning. "I told him I was right in front of him, but he said my coloring was all wrong."

"Okay, that was random," Sam said. "I mean he is half-ghost."

Tucker's PDA began beeping, causing all the adults to stare at him. He blushed. "Sorry," he said, "just doing some research for a class. Forgot to turn off the volume."

"Well, take it outside," the nurse told him. "All of you. We'll call you when he wakes up."

The girls waited until the door closed, leaving them out in the hallway. "Okay," Sam demanded. "What do you know?"

* * *

_"What do you know?" Desiree asked her daughter. "He told you something this morning."_

_"He told me about this dream world he lives in some of the time," Danielle admitted, hating the eyes that were focused on her. "He told me I was an unstable clone."_

_"And I was rock star," Ember piped up. "Sorry, Honored One, but he also spoke to me of this other world. Could it have been from the accident? We don't know if there were other side effects."_

* * *

_**Author's Note: This chapter has come full circle, and yet, we are still no closer to finding out which world is the real one. Keep reading and have fun guessing.**_


	3. From the Heart

Lost in the Mists

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

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**From the Heart**

* * *

_"And I was rock star," Ember piped up. "Sorry, Honored One, but he also spoke to me of this other world. Could it have been from the accident? We don't know if there were other side effects."_

_"You know he is not like other ghosts, Ember," Desiree said, moving a stray hair off of her son's forehead. "He was born of the Heart."_

_"The Portal Keeper," Ember said, nodding in agreement. "Or he was until the accident."_

_"He hasn't been sleeping," Desiree said. "Danielle, what did your brother tell you this morning?" Her attention focused on her daughter._

_"He's beginning to remember."_

* * *

"He's beginning to remember," Tucker explained, once they were out of earshot of any adults. "My PDA picked up a flux in his powers."

"That is strange," Jazz said.

"Agreed," Sam added. "Is there a source to this flux, Tucker?"

"Yes."

* * *

_"Yes," Desiree mused. "I was wondering when it would occur. The Time Master warned of it happening someday."_

_"Are we going to lose him again?" Danni asked. _

_"He is not ours to keep," her mother replied. "Ember?"_

_"Yes, Honored One?" the blue-haired girl asked._

_"Please, be gentle with him. Fire consumes him within and without for all things."_

_Ember bowed. "Can a wish fix the instability within his mind?"_

_Desiree's ruby eyes widened with surprise, then dimmed. "If it could, it would have been done by this time. Only the Time Master can help us now."_

_"I will release Mr. Phantom into your care, O Honored One," Doctor Bert Rand said, appearing an instant later when Desiree explained her desires and concerns. "Only the Time Master will know what to do."_

* * *

"Only the Time Master will know what to do."

Sam, Tucker and Jazz had managed to distract the teachers long enough to sneak Danny out of school and into Jazz's car, and then past her parents into the lab and the Ghost Zone. They had sought out Frostbite, the Clan-Leader of the Far Frozen, who sadly shook his head.

"What I do know is this," he added, "it was not his parents who caused this strange fracture of his mind."

"Then who?" Jazz demanded.

"It was you, dear one. You, who were forbidden to enter the portal, caused this. The Great One must go to the Heart from whence he came. The Time Master will show you the way."

* * *

**Author's Note: We're getting close to the truth. Keep reading and don't forget the press the little button below.**


	4. Light in the Window

Lost in the Mists

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

**Light in the Window**

* * *

"It was you, dear one. You, who were forbidden to enter the portal, caused this. The Great One must go to the Heart from whence he came. The Time Master will show you the way."

Jazz mulled Frostbite's words over in her mind. She didn't understand. She sighed.

"Jazz, don't sweat it," Sam told her. "Clockwork will know what to do. How's Danny?"

Jazz looked over at her little brother, who lay propped up with pillows on a makeshift cot. He had a strange expression on his face. "He looks like he's going home," she said, after studying him for a few minutes.

"Weird," Tucker said, shutting the door and starting the engine. "Sam, get the map out and give me the coordinates, please."

"Here," she said.

* * *

_"Here," she said, as they materialized on the doorsteps of Clockwork's tower. "He is expecting us."_

_"How do you know?" Ember replied._

_"There is a lamp on the topmost floor," she said, pointing. "One light indicates we are welcome, two if we are not. Also they are glowing a sunshine gold, not a luminescent blue."_

_"The colors indicate his mood," Danny murmured, not opening his eyes. _

_"Phantom, shhh," his mother murmured. "Rest."_

_"I'm not whole."_

* * *

"I'm not whole."

"Danny?" Sam asked, turning around in her seat. "We're taking you to Clockwork; he will help you."

Danny opened his blue eyes and looked over at his sister, who squeezed his hand. "I'm not whole," he repeated.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "It's my fault, Danny. I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry."

"We're here," Tucker announced a little while later. Danny had lapsed once a sleep-like state. "We're not the only ones here though.

"Who is there?" Jazz asked from the backseat.

"Danni, Desiree, and Ember," Tucker replied, then he gasped.

"What is it?" Sam queried, peering into the emerald gloom of the Ghost Zone.

"They've got Danny with them."

"That's impossible!"


	5. Starwashed Darkness

Lost in the Mists

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom

* * *

**Star-washed Darkness**

* * *

_"That's impossible!"_

_"What is, Danni?" Ember asked, watching the humans exit the vehicle, two females and two males, by the looks._

_"That boy," the ghost girl whispered, "he looks just like Phantom, just mortal."_

_Desiree's eyes narrowed as she looked over to where the girls were pointing. "I have to agree, but possibly they are from an alternate timeline."_

_Phantom moaned, emerald eyes opened. He turned and saw himself, mortal, with eyes of winter ice. He smiled. "Soon," he said._

* * *

"Soon," he said.

"What was that, Danny?" Jazz asked him, readjusting her grip around him as he slipped away from her.

He turned to look at her. "Soon," he said, then met eyes the color of spring. "Okay, this is a bit weird, even for Clockwork."

"What is?" Tucker asked.

"Alternate timelines meeting," Danny replied. "We'd better go inside. He's waiting."

* * *

_"Alternate timelines meeting," Danny replied. "We'd better go inside. He's waiting."_

_Neither group spoke to one another, except for a mutual exchange of greetings. Clockwork, the Time Master, silently watched them assemble before him. The mother figure, the lovers, the sisters and the best friend-everyone was accounted for._

_"Welcome, Portalkeeper," he said, bowing his head to both Danny's. Both inclined their heads to him._

_"Clockwork, I remember."_

The human Danny shook his head. "But not all of it," he added. "Ugh, my head!" He bowed his head, a grimace of pain on his face matched his twin's.

The Time Master walked over to a blank wall and opened a hidden doorway. "Both of you must enter, then the wrong must be righted." Here, he looked pointedly at Jazz Fenton.

"So, was it the accident?" Tucker asked, as both Phantom and Danny turned to stare at him surprise.

"Depends on which one," Clockwork answered. "The Child of the Heart has had many such narrow escapes."

"Clockwork," Jazz interjected. "It's obvious we're of two different timelines. Which version of Danny is the real one."

"The Portalkeeper can answer for himself," came the short reply.

"We should start at the beginning," a young ghost in his late teens spoke as he close the door. He had long white hair that fell about his shoulders in soft waves and eyes that were dark as the night sky with the rims etched in a soft glowing emerald light. He wore a black tight-fitting jeans with rips going up the sides, white knee-high boots with 4 silver buckles and straps, a black and white aristocratic vest from the Victorian period with some feathered patterned over a sleeveless white button shirt (not tucked in) and what looked like silk wrapped around both wrists-left one black, right one white-going all the way to his elbows.

Sam loved the new look. Danny looked like a modern Victorian goth. He turned in her direction and smiled.

"I'm glad you appreciate it. Mother searched through the time periods for the appropriate attire and gleaned a little from both you and Ember mentally," he said.

"So the Heart of the Ghost Zone is your mother?" Jazz asked.

"Yes," Danny Phantom answered. He turned to Desiree and bowed. "Honored One, I thank you for the care you have given me this last few turnings. I don't remember much from that time, but I promise you that when you leave this tower, a surprise and a hope will be waiting for you at home when the timelines merge."

"What about you, Danny?" Tucker spoke up. "What becomes of you? Will we ever meet you again?"

"Perhaps by chance or design," came the comment. "Clockwork, it is time."

Clockwork raised his staff and announced, "TIME IN!"

* * *

Author's Note: One more chapter to go.


	6. Doors

Lost in the Mists

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom

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**Doors**

* * *

_The halfa Danny and the ghost Danny looked uncertainly at one another and then walked through the door Clockwork held open for them._

**Welcome, my son.**

_Phantom looked down to see only one of himself again. For a moment, he had double vision and a brief flash of memory of two lifetimes. He groaned._

**You will reorient in a moment, my child.**

"Mother?" he asked, hesitantly, looking around in all the bright light for someone.

**I am all around you, Daniel. Here, let me properly attire you for this century.**

_Daniel looked down at himself and whistled slightly. "Modern meets Victorian Goth," he mused. "Sam and Ember would be pleased. But, Mother, why was I aged?"_

**This is the age you always were, my son, until the coming of the hunters. They and I have an agreement; their offspring after them will have the care of you when you reside in the human world; I will leave your mortal form to you for your safety. Only their offspring may not lay eyes upon you or see our world until they have passed the threshhold. The one you call Jazz Fenton made this mistake; that is why you were fractured.**

_"Explains a good deal. How do I go about righting this wrong?"_

**Love, luck and time.**

_"You're not really going to give me any hints, are you?" Danny asked, amused and annoyed at his mother's vagueness._

**That is for you to decide, my son.**

* * *

Phantom stood in the doorway between worlds and held his breath slowly and counted to ten. "Jack? Maddie?" he called, hoping they were on the other side.

"Danny?"

It was not Maddie or Jack, but Sam and Tucker. The door must have brought them here, when Clockwork had bade them all enter.

"I am here in the doorway between worlds," he told them. "Only Jack or Maddie may let me enter their world."

"Danny? Tucker's gone to get Mr. Fenton," Sam's breathy voice curled out from the portal's doors. "They told us about you, the Portalkeeper. I'm Sam Manson, one of the next three who will have guardianship of you, while you reside in our world."

Danny smiled as he watched Sam's hazy form slowly come into focus as he transitioned closer to the mortal plane. Footsteps beyond reached his ears; he stopped.

"Okay, Phantom," Jack's booming voice was heard. "It is safe."

Sam and Tucker watched as an ordinary human boy with short messy raven hair and bright blue eyes walked on through, casually, as if he did this on an everyday basis. He wore jeans, a red and white t-shirt, and red and white converses.

He smiled shyly. "By design or chance," he said, by way of greeting.

Sam and Tucker hugged him, not knowing why. Danny embraced them back. He turned to Jack Fenton and hugged him as well. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, Danny boy. Your mother is proud of how well you turned out," he said, indicating Maddie Fenton, who held out her arms to him, a cookie in each hand.

"For both of my boys," she teased.

Danny chuckled and gave his human mother what she craved the most.

* * *

Jazz picked up the note from her dresser and read:

_**Dear Jazz,**_

_**A world awaits at your fingertips. Though we cannot meet physically, we still can communicate in this fashion. Jack and Maddie Fenton are my caregivers on the physical plane. Once, while exploring the Ghost Zone, they lost all coordinates and drifted for days. My mother, by chance or fate or whatever the heck you want to call it, came for them. A bargain was struck and I was given into their care. You never saw me, but I was always there, growing, learning. **_

_**In two years time, you will cross the threshhold and we can meet again. I miss having our little "debates".**_

_**Love,**_

_**Danny**_

* * *

_As for the rest of the story, the Honored One returned home to find her son waiting for her, a wide beam on his face. "Portalkeeper," she whispered. "We are honored."_

_"No, mother, it is I who am honored," he replied. "Mother understands the importance of family and to me, you and Danni are mine. May I stay?"_

_"What about the humans?" she queried._

_"They are my family too," he said. "I am a part of both worlds and must honor the agreement between the hunters and my Mother. May I stay?"_

_"Yes, but do me a favor and brush up on your mathematical, geographical and history lessons, please. You're horrible at all three."_

_Danny unfolded himself from the sedan chair and embraced her. "I love you, Desiree."_

_"I too," she told him. "Ember and Danni should be here momentarily."_

_"I take it they found Skulker?"_

_"Yes, on an examination table in the middle of a battlefield in Norway." Desiree had no idea where this knowledge was coming from, but she smiled broadly at the ghost teen floating in front of her._

_"Welcome home, Portalkeeper," she told him._

_"That's Phantom, Danny Phantom to you, ma'am," he teased._


End file.
